College lacrosse recruit died of blunt-force head injuries

College lacrosse recruit died of blunt-force head injuries

Sep. 13, 2017

EASTON, Pa. (AP) — A freshman lacrosse recruit at a private college found unconscious near a dorm over the weekend died of blunt-force head injuries, a coroner said Wednesday.

Police in Easton have only said that 19-year-old McCrae Williams was involved in a "chain of events" that began Saturday at Lafayette College and ended with his death at a hospital Monday afternoon.

Lehigh County Coroner Scott Grim said he would wait for toxicology results to rule on the manner of death.

The headmaster of Williams' former boarding school in Massachusetts said in a letter to that school's parents that he was hurt in a fall.

Catherine Hill, the headmaster of Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, Massachusetts, did not specify in the letter how Williams might have fallen. A school spokesman said Hill learned of the details from Williams' parents, who were with him when he died.

The college's public safety officers responded to a call of a medical emergency outside a dormitory Sunday afternoon and found Williams unconscious. He was taken to a hospital, where he died two days later.

Easton police Lt. Matthew Gerould said he couldn't say whether alcohol was involved because the investigation ongoing and in early stages and because toxicology tests weren't complete.

Williams, of Weston, Massachusetts, was recruited to play lacrosse at the school this year. The team joined with about 500 other students in a vigil to mourn him Tuesday night.

Authorities were interviewing Williams' friends and roommates to piece together what led to his death.

"Obviously when you have a death like this, a kid this age, something's going on, so nothing is out of play here," Terence Houck, first deputy district attorney for Northampton County, told The Morning Call of Allentown.

In 2012, Lafayette freshman Everett Glenn, a star fencer from Clifton, New Jersey, died after drinking heavily on campus to celebrate his 19th birthday.